Don Gilberto Sánchez Cardeña was 11 years old when he started playing soccer on the field that today is occupied by Deportivo Hermanos Galeana, in San Juan de Aragón, Gustavo A. Madero mayor's office. That's where he scored his first goal.
Decades later, Deportivo Hermanos Galeana is still part of Don Gilberto's life, but now the place where he scored his first goal is also the scene of a neighborhood struggle against the construction of one of the Transformation and Organization Units for Inclusion and Social Harmony (Utopias).
When the works began, he and a group of neighbors organized to gather signatures, tour the surrounding neighborhoods, request hearings and hold protests to demand that the authorities listen to those who use the sports car.
Despite neighborhood dissatisfaction, this Sunday, October 25, the inauguration of Utopia took place in the sports car, “La Soberana”. During the event, Don Gilberto distributed flyers to inform attendees about neighborhood questions about the works. “I was lucky that people wanted to listen to me,” Gilberto explained.
The distribution of flyers continued until, according to his testimony, the police intervened. “They noticed the distribution of the flyers and attacked me. I didn't leave myself, I screamed, I spoke, I went back to screaming and arguing,” he described.
A historic fight for public space
Don Gilberto explains that the current problem has a historical precedent: an expropriation decree, dated March 1, 1962, through which the land of the ejidatarios of the town of San Juan de Aragón was allocated to the construction of the sports car. According to his story, the decree established that the property should be used for that purpose and prohibited building buildings outside their functions.
During the following decades, the complex incorporated other equipment. Don Gilberto recalls that approximately 20 years ago, a preparatory school, a police station, a dental clinic, a court and a territorial headquarters, among other buildings, began to be installed inside the sports car.
The arrival of Utopias in 2025 began a new debate over land use. According to Don Gilberto, the works began before an information meeting was convened at which the benefits of the project were presented. At that meeting, he says, a consultation was also held whose representation he questions.
Don Gilberto attended the meeting and took the microphone to express his opposition. From that moment on, several people began to organize to document their disagreements and seek the support of other inhabitants.
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The group wrote a letter and collected around a thousand signatures, both among people who use the sports car and in nearby neighborhoods. Its members toured the streets with megaphones and flyers to report on the works and explain why they considered it necessary to open a public conversation about the project.
With the document, they went to the mayor's office and the Government of Mexico City. The authorities received the letter and sealed the corresponding charges. Then they requested a hearing that, according to Don Gilberto, was slow to take place. When they were finally received, they met with officials that he identifies as second and third levels, while the works continued.
The neighborhood organization maintained its activities. They placed tarps around the sports car, painted them and organized an evening to make their demands visible. During one of these actions, Don Gilberto was arrested by police and released soon after. During the evening, remember, the presence of police and officials surpassed that of the demonstrators.
The neighborhood organization also established links with ejidatarios in Iztapalapa. Don Gilberto says that representatives of that group visited the sports club and that they later participated in a march together with them. Thus, the defense of the Galeana Brothers was connected with other disputes over territory and the use of public spaces in the city.
Neighborhood concerns have been concentrated on the procedure through which it was decided to intervene in the sports car, the scope of the expropriation decree and the transformations that the complex is undergoing.
“They're putting cement inside the sports car and that changes the terrain. There are spaces here that people have used for many years. There is also the issue of trees: some say that they only removed those that were dry, although other people point out that there was felling. We want to review what is happening with space and what are the effects that these works leave.”
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